KC Verma is National Technical Research Organisation chairman

Prime minister (PM) Manmohan Singh has decided to appoint KC Verma chairman of National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), the country’s most powerful hi-tech spy agency. 

Verma will have a fixed tenure of three years and is set to take up the new assignment on January 1, one month before he superannuates as head of external spy agency Research & Analysis Wing (RAW).

With his induction in NTRO, the process of filling top positions in all sensitive investigating and intelligence agencies of the country has been completed.

PM is understood to have hand-picked the new heads of CBI, Intelligence Bureau (IB), RAW and NTRO to ensure greater accountability and effectiveness.

DNA was the first to report on November 22 that special director Sanjiv Tripathi would be the new head of RAW, while Verma would be shifted to NTRO. It had also reported that special director Nischal Sandhu would be the new chief of IB after Rajiv Mathur retires and Ashwini Kumar would not be given an extension as CBI director and AP Singh was the frontrunner to replace him. 

After several sensitive reports were leaked, an extremely worried PM had shown the door to two top NTRO officers. To avoid further embarrassment to the government, he did not immediately appoint anybody to head NTRO after KVSS Prasada Rao demitted office a couple of months ago.

Since Rao was a scientist, the government felt the need to replace him with an ace cop and administrator in Verma, who had served under Union home minister P Chidambaram before he was appointed to head RAW.

NTRO used to be a part of RAW, but became a separate organisation after the Kargil war. Today, it is more powerful than RAW.

Verma is demitting his RAW office a month in advance to facilitate takeover by Sanjiv Tripathi on January 1. Since Tripathi is retiring on December 31, PM decided to shift Verma early.

Tripathi, a seasoned officer, is number two in RAW. He was recommended to head the wing two years ago also. But somehow, it did not materialise. Now, PM has not only appointed him to the top post but has also granted him tenure of two years. Heads of other investigating agencies have also been given fixed tenures.

PM wants to bring continuity and stability in the government and its key agencies by gradually fixing tenures of top officials. As part of this exercise, secretaries in the ministries of home, defence and external affairs have been granted fixed two-year tenures.